This Will Be Our Last Battle
by Niallfornandos
Summary: Humanity's victory is rearing its head, and there is only one last battle to fight before the titans are wiped off the face of the earth. But in order to win, you must be willing to sacrifice something, or more importantly, someone. Jean isn't sure he can do that. Jeaneren, Angst and Character death.


"This will be our last battle, you know."

Jean looked at Eren, quickly diverting his eyes from the book he had been reading. Suddenly, there was a smile on his face, and he slowly rose from his chair and walked over to Eren until the other had to look up to see his face.

"Yeah, I know." he said. And as soon as Eren was in his reach, Jean wrapped his arms around his sturdily-built shoulders, burying his head in the shaft of Eren's neck. "…you nervous?"

Eren stifled his quick and labored breaths and the shuddering of his hands, because there was no way that he would tell Jean he was actually scared for his life, for the other's, and for everybody else's. "No. I'm ready."

"I'm not."

And Eren could suddenly feel Jean's grasp on him tighten, almost protectively, so he let out a short breath, one that he had been holding, and rests his head on Jean's chest.

"You better not do anything stupid out there. I'm counting on you coming back uninjured." Jean muttered, knowing how Eren never quite thought before he did things. He was way too quickly paced, way too clueless, so he had to worry for him constantly.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. It'll all just heal anyway." Eren whispered, as if he wasn't paying attention to a word that passed Jean's lips.

The blond pulled away so suddenly from Eren, he startled a bit. "Eren," he began, "what do you look forward to after all of this is over?"

And the question sounded stupid in Eren's ears, but he answered anyway. "I don't know… Peace. Life. No more death." It sounded like a dream to anyone at the time, so distant, yet at the same time, it was so tangible you could almost hold the far off idea and cradle it.

Jean looked straight into twinkling blue-green with as much solemness as he could muster. "Can I give you something else to look forward to?"

Eren only looked confused.

In the next moment, Jean had been on his knees, taking out a velvet box in his hand and opening it.

Eren heard the clean, crisp pop of the box opening, and his eyes widened uncertainly, until they finally lay upon the golden ring that sat in velvet cushions, looking beautiful and dreamy and distant. He placed a hand to his mouth before he could speak.

"Eren Jaeger, will you marry me?" Jean said with clarity, and he swore, the look in Eren's eyes made his heart leap inside its confines, because it was just too good to be true.

The brunette opened his mouth, but nothing more came out except a shaky laugh as his eyes became glassy. He pressed his hand to his lips, closing his eyes as he smiled the best grin he could, because his cheeks were getting all tight as he tried not to cry.

"Yes…" he whispered hoarsely. "Yes, I will."

In the next moment, he had leaped into Jean's arms, and the other had been smiling the widest Eren had ever seen. It wasn't one of those smug grins he was given when they were fighting, or one of those fake ones he wore when he was trying to cover his sadness. He was actually smiling the best he could, and Eren could finally feel the tiniest amount of tears build in his eyes, because he didn't want to lose this, not then, not ever.

After he had slid the ring onto his finger. they had just spent the rest of the night talking and smiling, and they both got into bed after they were tired and their breaths could no longer carry a single word, despite the fact that Jean had been due in his chamber more than an hour before.

"You'll be safe tomorrow...right, Jean?" Eren whispered uncertainly.

"I'll try my best. You better do the same." And Jean closed his eyes before leaning over and kissing Eren with a determination he had never done with before. "I love you."

Although the words had not been uttered between the two a whole lot, and Jean was being the most gentle he had ever been before, Eren liked it. So he closed his eyes rested his head on the blond's chest.

"I love you too."

* * *

They were about to seperate, which had not been planned for.

Eren had tried to make the sergaent change his mind, but to no avail, no matter how much the titan shifter begged. He had been about to start screaming, if Jean hadn't grabbed his wrist gently. He turned Eren around, so he could look straight into his widening eyes.

"Don't go making any dumbass moves, Eren." he scolded, and instantly regretted his word choice when he saw Eren's eyebrows scrunch up.

But the brunette wasn't focused on Jean's face. He was looking down at his finger, at that golden ring, and in less than a moment, he felt helplessly sick, because what if he lost Jean? What if _he_ was lost? All of those horrible possibilities rushed to his brain and he felt like breaking down.

Jean took notice of the way Eren's nose scrunched up, and his lips were set in a tight line. "Hey, Eren." he said, barely managing to catch the other's attention.

"...What?" he said, breaking eye contact.

"We're going to be okay."

And everything was silent for what seemed like forever.

All until Eren spoke in a shaky voice. "We're going to be okay," he repeated uncertainly.

Just then, everyone was seperating into their squads, to fight one last time, and they both held their breath.

After a few moments of irregular breathing, they crashed forwards, and their lips tangled in a frenzied clash. Jean was pushing, it seemed, breaking through Eren's lips until their tongues wrestled. He was holding the brunette's shoulders in a tight grasp as they did so, and he wouldn't let go. The messiness of everything almost made Eren laugh while they were still pressing their lips against eachother, but he supressed it and just grinned under Jean's mouth.

_We'll probably kiss more gently when we get married_, Eren mused, _right?_ And he still smiled.

They suddenly broke apart, left breathless, and looked into each other's eyes. Jean pressed one last kiss to Eren's forehead, and looked back at his team before letting go of the other.

"I love you," Eren said, his words forcing Jean to look him in the eyes once more.

"I love you too," Jean said, "and everything's going to be okay."

Eren nodded and waved before parting from the blond, and as his team left, he looked back at Jean too many times to count.

* * *

Everything had been going great so far, in Jean's opinion. There wasn't too many titans to fight, so it had been going relatively quickly.

He couldn't wait to see Eren after everything had ended. He was beginning to grow impatient, but he just told himself that it would be over soon, and after that, the two could plan their marriage out, and talk forever if they wanted.

After the thought of that crossed his mind, he began to kill with a more fevered passion.

* * *

That had been it. Jean had delivered the kill that destroyed the last titan on this damn planet. He would never have to see their ugly faces again, or feel the ground shake as they stomped after him and the rest of his squad. After all the pain they had brought, after all the lives they had taken, they were gone. Jean let out a breath he had been holding ever since the walls had broken.

It was safe now, for Eren.

And he still couldn't wait to see him. Although he was exhausted, he very slowly managed to pull out his smoke signal before firing the green smoke into the sky.

Everyone waited tensely for another smoke signal to launch into the sky. Some seemed to be visibly holding their breath.

Then, they saw it.

The green smoke, looking thick in the air, as it shot through the blue sky. And everyone was silent, until there were soft sniffles souding throughout the air.

It was over.

* * *

Everyone had met together at the camp. Silence didn't exist. Everybody was either crying loudly, or cheering.

That was when Jean began looking for Eren in the crowd he was surrounded by. He pushed this way and that, trying to make his way through the mob of people, but he never saw the brunette he was proposed to. He screamed his name, jumped up and down, but he didn't see his fiance anywhere.

He began to panic.

He squeezed his way through until finally, he reached the leader from Eren's team.

Pulling on the man's sleeve, Jean spoke in a trembling voice. "Sir, have you seen Eren?" he whispered. "I can't find him anywhere."

The man didn't respond. Instead, he looked away, tore his eyes from Jean's face, as if he was ashamed.

And he knew then, but he wouldn't accept it.

Even though he felt his heart crumbling under the pressure of reality, he refused to believe for a second that Eren was gone.

He almost grabbed the man's collar in his nervousness, but refrained from doing so. "Sir, we need to collect the bodies." He sounded broken, scared.

The guy looked generous enough.

"_Now_." he said shakily.

Although the man looked strained, he rounded everyone that was left, anyone who had managed to last the day, and made plans then for going on the search for their dead comrades.

And Eren, alive and injured, or gone.

* * *

They had been searching for hours,and so far, had collected a great amount of bodies. But Eren hadn't been seen yet, and no matter how hard Jean tried to stay calm, he couldn't stop the trembling of his body. He tore away at debris, hoping to find a coughing body underneath, alive and breathing, and he scanned every inch of the surrounding area he could, wanting to see a moving, twitching person. But there was not one body he found that resembled Eren in the slightest.

He walked through a patch of dirt, foreign-looking next to the green grass surrounding him, speckled with red. He took a fistful of hair and pulled. He felt as if he was slowly losing his mind.

"_Eren_," he whispered, his voice cracking a bit, "where the hell _are_ you?"

He tried to distract himself, do anything to tear his mind away from the slowly impending craze that took control of his mind, and look out at the grass, the trees, the sky, the birds. And that's when he saw it, the slight twinkle of gold in sunlight, caught in the corner of his eye.

It was a hand, a small hand with a golden ring on one of those familiarly slender fingers, sticking out of a pile of rubble. His blood ran cold.

Jean raced to it, swearing under his breath. As soon as he reached it, he took the hand, felt it inbetween the fleshy padding of his fingers, and it fit, and he could've sworn it felt like the hand he had held and swung mindlessly so many times before.

He began to dig his way through the filth, but it seemed to take forever to reach the body that the hand was connected to. He could see the fabric of one of the military uniforms, he could see blood and torn flesh and—

Jean stopped.

And breathed.

_Eren._

Eren, who was covered in his own blood. Eren, whose leg and arm was missing. Eren, whose hollow green eyes looked up to the sky, standing out starkly against the red that had poured from his nose and mouth._ Eren,_ _who still wore that godforsaken ring on his broken finger_.

Jean knew it had hurt, being broken like that. He saw the tear streaks that made their marks on his filthy red cheeks. He looked hollow.

Slowly, he brought the hand to his mouth, kissing the fingers delicately as he sobbed, until there was not an inch left of skin that had Jean had not pressed his lips to.

* * *

Everyone wore black, for humanity's greatest hope had fallen. He had been placed in a polished casket, though he himself hadn't been polished too much. The blood was washed away, and that was all. He still looked broken, with his missing limps and broken bones.

And he still looked beautiful, in Jean's opinion.

Mikasa and Armin stood to the side, crying as they looked at Eren, never breaking their sorrowful gazes.

During those few moments of silence, Jean had made his way to the front of the crowd. He didn't care about the testing looks he was given as he took the lifeless boy's hand. He didn't care. He just cried, not sensing the hand that was holding his cheek, that was not seen.

* * *

_We will meet again someday, we will._


End file.
